This article reviews a country-wide citizenship education programme in Kyrgyzstan, exploring its reception within the context of an emerging democracy. Qualitative interviews with students, teachers and non-governmental organisation workers in three regions of Kyrgyzstan highlight the value given to particular aspects of the curriculum: new content and perspectives on citizenship; an engaging, content-rich textbook; and interactive instructional methods. These are all found to transform individual outlooks, self-efficacy, classroom dynamics and teacher–student relationships. Because the context is an unstable political, economic and social situation, the curriculum becomes positioned as revolutionary as students are encouraged to build a new system, albeit one that resembles Western democracy. Critical issues arising out of the programme include the meaning and purpose of consensus within a classroom; ways to value different types of participation; and how to indigenise the type of citizenship in the curriculum.
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